In the Midst of Chaos
by SkippingSteppingStones
Summary: With a recent fire on Mara's mind, and an upcoming Alderaanian holiday on Luke's, both are a little more honest than they're prepared for yet. Mara is hasty, and Luke is clumsy, and Mara's protégé, a six-year-old named Rey, is making it all worse via pure enthusiasm. ONESHOT


Trigger Warnings: food, fire, child abuse mention

Headcanons: trans Luke, Autistic Force sensitives

Pairings: Luke/Mara, and mentioned Han/Leia

AUs: All the good TFA and TLJ characters are around, and also a bunch of good EU characters. Mara bought Rey for reasons that were certainly not concern and recognizing herself in a little girl being sold by her parents, and is training her. Luke has started a little Jedi school, and is training a bunch of people of various ages, including Finn. Leia and Han don't have any kids yet, but will eventually have Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin. Poe is Leia's godson-not-a-godson-because-Star-Wars. Not sure what Rose is up to, but she's around somewhere. Maybe Han's buddy/apprentice for working on the _Falcon_ , since each of the other three grown-ups mentioned has a cute little protégé.

Mara took a slow breath in, held it, and took the shot. Across the compound, the dignitary dropped like a stone, and she smiled. A flick of her hand, and she marked the mission as complete.

Immediately, her comm went wild, and the smile slid from her face. Nothing to ruin a good mood like a flurry of unwanted communications. Hunching her shoulders, she tugged apart her sniper blaster, tucking it back into the handbag she'd brought it in.

She'd deal with the communications once she was away.

As she stepped out of her hiding spot, she drew herself up to her full height, trying to appear as if she belonged among the rich and important local bureaucrats. It was easy. As easy as it had always been in the Empire. When she had worked for Palpatine, she might have had more credible documents, but once she was in, it was the same job as ever.

She stepped lightly around the edge of the party, and made the appropriate expressions of dismay when she saw the dead politician, and left the party without anyone sparing her a second glance.

As she climbed into her speeder, she took out her comm, and looked at the alerts that had accumulated while she'd had it silenced for her mission. Skywalker. A solid dozen calls from Skywalker.

She groaned, flicking at the screen for the still-more-calls she'd received. At least another five from the Jedi, then one from her superintendent, of all people, and then a few more from Luke.

" _I'm not in the mood for flirting,"_ she hissed in annoyance. It was unlike him to bother her like that, though. Sure, he'd call when he wasn't wanted sometimes, and he could sometimes get a bit snippy about what she'd felt was more important than, in his words, "talking to a friend". But he wasn't usually this persistent.

She redialed him, and rested the comm on her dash, pulling a couple of bobby pins out of her hair. Leia must've been better with them, she thought, listening to Luke's ringtone. She always looked gorgeous, while Mara's experience with bobby pins was fully uncomfortable and miserable. Not that she hadn't been told by everyone from the sunny farm boy to much less pleasant characters that she looked good with her hair up.

"Mara!"

He was covered in flour, and beaming, and in spite of herself, Mara forgave him a little bit.

"What do you need?" she said, intent to keep some anger in her voice. "I have to get back to Rey."

At that, the smile melted off his face, and he looked highly uncomfortable, and Mara's heart beat faster.

"What?"

What had Rey _done_. She'd just told her to stay home, and practice her sharpshooting. It had been an easy task, and Rey was usually capable of far more than _easy_ tasks.

"It wasn't her fault," Luke said evenly, his calm regained in the face of her anger. "There was a fire."

The call from her landlord. Mara cursed. That apartment was her life, simply put. She kept all the information she had on hits, as well as all her belongings, and her protégé there.

"I got some of your things," Luke said, and Mara knew he was trying to sound reasonable and soothing. "And I brought Rey over to my apartment. She's fine."

Mara sighed, suddenly exhausted. "Show me."

Luke turned the camera's intake to his little three-legged table in the kitchen, and there Rey sat, her favourite stuffed animal held tight in her arms, and a spread of half-iced cookies before her.

"We're just making some cookies," Luke said, and Rey held up the one she was working on with a smile. "To keep her calm," Luke whispered, and Mara gave a little nod.

"I guess I'll come over there, then," she said, looking back at the purse that contained her rifle again. It was a good thing she'd had it, she thought. It was probably the most expensive piece of equipment she'd had in her apartment, and would have been a pain to replace.

"I'll see you in a few minutes." He smiled, and Mara tried to crush the feeling in her chest. She wasn't sure if it was relief, or gratitude, or anger, but she didn't want it right now. This was going to be a setback. She'd been feeling quite good about her attempts to rebuild a life for herself, despite what remained of the Empire, the efforts of Luke's cursed sister, and the many, many assassins she had upstaged. A fire had not occurred to her as much of a threat.

She stomped on the gas, and the speeder whined in protest, leaping forwards. She knew, instinctively, the way to Luke's apartment, from his presence, and the presence of the little girl. At least Rey was safe. Rey, and whatever Luke had managed to get out of the burning building.

She couldn't be bothered avoiding the other speeders, and she thought absently that this was definitely the most conspicuous escape she'd ever made.

She barely stopped in time to avoid collision with Luke's window. She couldn't be bothered with the front door, and she'd been seen by enough people already today. He opened a window, looking bemused, and she let him wrap his arms around her, and help pull her in, programming the speeder to go get itself stolen somewhere. Better if it couldn't be traced back to her.

It hadn't been hers, anyway.

A final scramble, and she and her rifle fell to the floor. She sighed, and let her head fall to her arms for a second. She'd never been here before, despite Luke's best, and frequent, attempts to invite her over for dinner.

"Hey," he said, and she looked up sharply, determined to shut up that consoling tone. She saw the room for just long enough to register, to her horror, that it was his bedroom, before he had his arms around her again in an obvious attempt to be comforting, and she pushed him off.

He let her go, taking her bag from the floor and swinging it over his shoulder, offering her his hand.

She accepted it. He wasn't trying to flirt, right now, she knew. He was just concerned about her, and it wasn't _his_ fault that the window she'd chosen to climb in had been his bedroom. As he put his arm around her, she almost complained, but there was something in his tenseness, and the acrid smell of burning that made her choose to stay.

"You and Rey can stay here for a while," he told her, opening the door, and guiding her down a short hall to his living room, before Rey was suddenly in her arms, having leapt the back of a sofa.

She forgot him immediately, gripping the girl tightly, her face buried in her hair, very much out of the persona she tried to maintain. Luke, especially, should not have been seeing this show of emotion, but she could smell burning in Rey's hair as well, and was acutely relieved that her body temperature felt normal. "That was a good jump," she croaked, desperate to maintain some dignity, before the little girl gave a mighty shake, and Mara knew she'd started to cry.

Mara exhaled, adjusting her grasp on her student so she'd be more stable, and looked over at Luke. "I'd like to see what you saved, now."

"Looks like you've already got the most important thing," he said, and Mara snarled as he had the nerve to try to poke her in the ribs. As she dodged away, he laughed, and headed over to the door, where a few boxes sat. "I know it's not much, but I did my best."

Mara tried to put Rey down, so she could get a good look at what remained of her apartment, but the little girl had wrapped her legs around her teacher's waist, and balled her little fists in Mara's dress.

"Can you take Rey for me?"

Luke nodded, and Mara helped him pry Rey's limbs off of her, and tangle her back around him, before dropping to one knee to dig through her things. Mostly mission briefings, a few correspondences from when she'd worked for Palpatine, and a messy bag that was certainly Luke's doing, full of a haphazard collection of clothes. It all smelled strange; of smoke.

"The fire might not've destroyed everything," Luke said helpfully, kneeling next to her. "We can go back later, and see. Your dishes should have survived."

"As though those were important," Mara said, dragging another box over, and pulling it open. Winter blankets and coats. Worthless.

"I'm not saying they were important," Luke said, offering her a fistful of datachips that he must've stuck in his pocket. "I'm saying they're ceramic, and probably didn't burn. Having anything after the fire can help."

Mara pushed the box away, and fell against his shoulder. It felt hopeless. All she'd had in the galaxy had been in that stupid apartment, and now almost all of it was gone. She reached out, and collected the datachips, examining them for just long enough to know that they were mostly Rey's training sims, before letting them fall to the floor.

"I know it's frustrating," Luke told her, holding her close, and rubbing her shoulder gently. Rey was making an attempt at crawling back to Mara, and she allowed her, looking down into her wide brown eyes.

"It was so scary!" Rey told her, just gripping her hands, and sitting on the floor before her. "It smelled bad, and I thought it was just the sim at first, but it kept getting worse! When I took it off, there was smoke under the door!"

"Did you get any of her things?" Mara asked, turning to Luke, and squeezing Rey's hands by way of comfort.

Luke flicked his head, and Mara turned to find that he'd pulled a bed out of his couch, and most of Rey's favourite belongings were piled in a makeshift nest.

"Dad came and took me down," Rey said sincerely, wiping the tear tracks from her face, and ponderously coming to her feet, stumbling back to her nest.

"He's not your dad," Mara said absently, standing up as well, and steadying the girl as she crawled back into her blankets and clothes.

"You say you're not my mom, either," Rey said, rolling around a bit to cover herself in the soft, familiar fabric from home.

"I'm _not_ ," Mara said, pulling a blanket over the little girl protectively. "I bought you _from_ your mother. You're my student."

"That makes you as good as her mother," Luke said, and Mara shot him a glare.

Just because she wasn't a cruel master didn't make her-

"Where're we gonna go now?" Rey asked, pressing her face into Mara's hand, as she accidentally let it still for a moment.

"Luke's going to let us stay here for a few days," Mara told her, freeing her hand under the guise of stroking Rey's cheek. "I'll see what's left of our apartment, and we can figure out where to go next."

"You don't have to go," Luke said, and Mara looked up at him sharply.

"I'm not going to join your Order," she snapped, tucking Rey's toy into her arms.

"I'm not asking you to," Luke said, grasping her hand, and refusing to let her pull away. "Mara, this is a lot for you to deal with, and even more for Rey. I'm not gonna push anything on you right now, I'm just letting you know you don't have to do this alone."

For a moment, she longed to lean into his arms, and let him reassure her that it would be alright, but she pulled away. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Okay," Luke said gently, and Mara knew he was letting the point go, to be returned to. The Jedi turned to Rey, and pulled her blankets up to her chin, before bending and kissing her forehead. "You take a nap, and I'll wake you up for dinner."

"Okay," she mumbled back, and Mara couldn't help smiling back at her as she reached up and kissed Luke's cheek.

"You next," Luke said, and Mara rolled her eyes, almost wanting to protest.

But she bent her head and kissed Rey, too, and Rey beamed up at her for a second before pressing her little face into her toy, and closing her eyes.

For a second, they sat still, watching as the little girl's breathing slowly evened out, before Luke stood up.

"Let's wash some of your clothes," he whispered to Mara, starting to tidy up the pile of cookies Rey had abandoned to greet her guardian.

"What good will it do?" she asked, looking at the open bag by the door. "Smoke doesn't wash out well."

"It's a start," Luke said firmly, closing up the cookies, and hauling the bag over his shoulder. "Besides, we should leave Rey to rest."

Mara looked back at the little girl, and sighed, gathering the box of out-of-season clothes. It would be good to occupy her mind. Carefully, she pulled loose the outliers in Rey's soft pile, and put them in the box as well.

Luke held the door open for her, and she stepped into the hallway, waiting until the door closed before speaking.

"I shouldn't have left her there alone."

"You did what you had to do," Luke promised, heading off down the hallway, and calling the lift. "She's safe; it's alright."

"I should've made sure she'd know if a fire started," Mara said angrily, hip checking her box full of clothes against the wall to keep it still.

"Mara," he said, reaching out for her shoulder, and coming up short when she glared at him.

"Do you even know what I was doing?" she hissed.

The lift arrived, and Luke smiled, stepping in, and keeping the door from closing after him. "You've just killed someone. I'm not stupid. I held your rifle."

Mara stepped in after him, and finally let her head fall against his shoulder in frustration. "What if she'd been hurt."

Luke chuckled softly, and she heard the bag of laundry hit the floor as he hugged her.

Being held was still a strange sensation for her. It was one thing when Rey, once an ordinary child, would still come to her for some human contact, and another thing altogether to be held by another adult. Growing up, Palpatine certainly hadn't been the type for physical contact, and while she had received awkward pats from Vader – Luke's father, she thought uncomfortably -there hadn't been much interaction with others.

The lift pinged, and came to a halt, and Luke hesitantly dropped one of his arms to grab the laundry again, keeping her close as he guided her out into the hall.

"I'm a professional assassin," she said into his shoulder. "I was trained by _Palpatine_."

"All the training in the galaxy doesn't mean you can save everyone," Luke said reasonably, before pressing her shoulder gently, "Turn."

She turned obediently, "That's easy for you to say."

Luke had released her, and was loading the laundry into the nearest free machine. For a moment, he didn't answer, and Mara took it to mean that he'd decided to be a Jedi, and torturously calm about the whole ordeal again.

"I wouldn't say that."

She looked up from where she'd convinced herself to start loading her box into a machine, and saw that he'd stopped, just resting his hands on the washer, his head bowed. He'd rolled up his sleeves, and her gaze was drawn automatically to the thin lines on his right forearm that showed where the controls for his prosthetic hid under false skin.

He shook his head, and straightened up, dumping a large fistful of clothing into the washer without sorting it.

"Sorry, you've had a long day." His smile was back, rueful and self-deprecating, and Mara upended her box over the machine she'd chosen. It was all basically clean, anyway. It didn't have to be untangled. "I shouldn't be…" he shook his head, and reached over to tap a card for payment.

Mara stood still, staring at the washer as it deposited some detergent into the swirl of clothes, and started chugging slowly, before she realized what Luke was talking about.

"Your uncle."

She looked over at him, feeling half a knot form in her stomach that it'd taken her this long to remember. Force, even just an assassin should have remembered something that important about a once-target.

And a friend, as Luke kept insisting she was, should certainly have remembered.

"It's more my aunt that bothers me," Luke said. He still sounded calm, he was still smiling a little bit, and loading a third machine with the last of the contents of the bag. "It was a long time ago, though. It was just the smell that brought it back."

He'd been abused. Mara was kicking herself. She knew that, Luke had tried to use it to convince her that it was safe to tell him about her own traumas, and a couple of times, she'd given in and let things slip.

"Giving Father a funeral pyre probably didn't help my feelings on smoke," Luke said, giving the last machine a precise knock with his knee, and sending the lid crashing down. He tapped his card again, and stood over the machine for a moment, before looking at the door.

"How did you hear about the fire?" Mara asked. She didn't know if she was wanting to invite him to keep speaking, or trying to change the topic, but it was important, either way. Somehow, he'd heard that Rey was in danger, and had run to save her, and Mara wanted to be confident that the results could be replicated.

Luke grabbed the question like a lifeline, dropping the empty garbage bag into Mara's empty box, and swinging both onto his hip, clearly accustomed to doing laundry in bursts when he came back from missions. "Got lucky, I guess. I heard it on the news when I was heading home from Leia's."

"What were you doing there?" Mara asked. She felt a bit cowardly for trying to skulk away from how saving Rey had hurt Luke, but maybe it was better to leave it in the past for now.

"She still celebrates an Alderaanian holiday around this time of year. She's got a calculator running for their days, the time where she grew up…" She opened the door for him, and he stepped smartly through. "Sometimes I think it'd be better for her if she could let it slip a little... But it's good to spend time with her."

Mara attempted to open the door to his apartment for him, and he laughed as the knob only rattled in her hand, setting the box on his hip and unlocking his door.

"You and Rey would be welcome if you want to join us."

Mara walked by his couch, her hand running absently over Rey's forehead. "Really? Us? Your sister has been trying to chase us off this planet since we arrived."

"She has her duties," Luke said, dropping the box at the edge of the pull-out bed. "She knows I like you, and she doesn't mind you that much."

"That much," Mara chuckled, following Luke as he headed back into the kitchen, and resumed what he must have been doing when she'd called him back.

"You tried to kill me, she hasn't quite forgiven you yet," Luke said. He crouched in front of his refrigeration unit and pulled out a bag of vegetables. "Can you chop these for me?"

"I am good at mutilating things," Mara said, accepting the bag, then a knife, and cutting board. "Is this for tonight, or tomorrow?"

Luke hesitated in the middle of digging out another ingredient, "Uh… both, probably. Han usually makes most of the dinner, and everyone's just glad if I bring something edible."

Mara began chopping the vegetables. "If you put in enough spices, no one will know if you did a good job."

"Really?" Luke asked, finding a pot, and putting it on the stove, "Good to know."

He took the first of the vegetables from her and dumped them into the pot, starting to shake a tiny bit of spice over them. Mara rolled her eyes, reaching over, and whacking the shaker.

"Woah!" Luke said, scrambling to get a better grip on it.

"That wasn't enough spice to disguise whatever you did to it!"

Luke was fishing around in the pot with a convenient spoon. "I know what I'm doing this time! This is something my aunt learned from my grandma, and she taught it to me properly!" He reached over and delicately poured the excess spice all over her, "It's the one thing I can cook right."

Mara sneezed, and did her best to throw some of it back at him, laughing. Skywalker wasn't so bad, she thought, as he gave an undignified squeak, and tried to cover his face with his hands, which were nearly as covered in spice as she was.

"Stop!" he laughed, stumbling back, as she tried to make him sneeze.

"Mom?"

Mara stopped trying to rub spice over his nose, and turned to the doorway. There Rey stood, an unfamiliar blanket around her shoulders, her teddy in her arms. Luke had turned as well, and as his eyes fell on the little girl, he smiled, shaking his head to dislodge some of the spice from his hair, and heading over to her.

"Hey, sweetie," he said, kneeling and carefully brushing a bit of sleep from one of her eyes with the spice-free back of his hand. "Did you sleep well?"

Rey smiled a little bit, squeezing her teddy's neck, "Yeah. What're you doing? You smell funny."

Luke laughed, making another attempt at brushing off his tunic, "Mara and I have been trying to cook. We got distracted."

Rey giggled, and scrambled up to a seat at the table, dropping her doll on it, and standing up to try to get a peek into the pot. "What're you making?"

Luke swept her off her feet, carrying her over to see, and she squeaked, scrambling to grasp his wrists.

"It's something my aunt used to make for holidays," he told her, lifting her up to sit on his shoulder as he dumped in a measure of oil. "I thought you and Mara could use something nice."

Rey was busy scrambling to attach herself more securely, and Mara had to stifle a laugh as she realized that she'd decided she didn't want to be removed. A moment later, Luke was trying to bring her down, and discovered for himself.

"Alright." He rolled his eyes, and gave Rey a quick tickle, before adjusting the stove's temperature, and digging out a few more ingredients, Rey gleefully clinging to his head as he moved. "Mara, if you could get me a cup of water? I…" he gestured at Rey, and Mara smiled, filling a cup, and passing it back to him.

"Maybe your offer to let us stay was a bit more selfish than you'd let on," she said, perching on the counter. Luke seemed to have the cooking mostly in hand, and she was enjoying watching Rey cling to him as he tried to work.

He smiled, reaching up to steady Rey for a second. "Maybe. It works out for you, though, right?"

He dumped a couple of cans into the pot, and covered it, coming over to sit across from her. Once he'd seated himself, Rey climbed down from his shoulders, resting in his lap, and retrieving her doll.

"It just needs to cook for a few minutes," he said, gesturing slightly, and making Rey's toy move in her hands. It reached up for a hug, and she squeezed it tightly, smiling into its thick neck.

"Luke's invited us to come over to his sister's for dinner, tomorrow," Mara told Rey.

The little girl's eyes opened wide, her grip on her toy not loosening at all. "Leia's?" she whispered in terror.

Luke's eyes widened, and he looked down at Rey, "Are you really that afraid of her?"

"She's scary!" Rey defended herself, throwing her arms open, the doll swinging wildly from one hand as she spun to look up at Luke, "She's gonna put Mom in jail!"

He smiled, shaking his head, and brushing a hand through her hair. "She's not gonna put anyone in jail tomorrow, I promise. She's going to really like the cookies you made."

"Yeah?" Rey asked doubtfully, tilting her head at him.

"Yeah. And she doesn't try to get Mara arrested because she doesn't like her, it's because she keeps _killing_ people."

"Mom only kills bad people," Rey said, serenely playing with her teddy's ear.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Only bad people, huh? Well, it'd help her chances of not-getting-arrested if she'd just stick to a recognizable moral code."

" _You were practically gleeful when I killed Stronof,_ " Mara whispered, prodding at Luke affectionately.

"Shh," Luke started to say, before cutting himself off, and trying, "You might notice he's not on the list of reasons Leia wants you arrested."

"But the New Republic would never sink to assassinations," she said, leaning back comfortably and enjoying his squirming.

"We were _about_ to catch him on sentient trafficking charges," Luke said, summoning the cookie tin to himself, and opening it to offer one to Rey.

"Don't give her that," Mara interjected, and Rey frowned, lowering her hand.

"Come on, Mara." Luke looked at her pleadingly, and she gave up.

She was outnumbered, and temporarily living in his home anyway. "Fine."

Luke grinned, and Rey leapt like a coiled spring, grabbing a messy cookie covered in icing and candies, and getting to work on it. Luke took one for himself, and held the tin out to her. For a second, she sat still, her arms still folded, but Rey was noisily enjoying her cookie, and she rolled her eyes, and accepted one too.

"You're a monster in your own way, farm boy."

He smiled, catching part of Rey's cookie as it crumbled loose, and holding it for her. "I'm unforgiveable. Caring about you, and trying to keep you safe."

Mara watched as Rey finished with the bit of cookie she still held, and retrieved the other part from Luke's palm. Maybe she was deceiving herself by claiming that Rey was any less than a child to her. But then, Luke could get away with calling _his_ students just 'students', and she'd seen him getting up to all the fatherly things she could think of. Cooking for them, showing them around, teaching them games, and spending time with them outside of class…

Yes.

This was just how Force users were, perhaps. Overly friendly and close with their students.

She decided not to consider Palpatine, and his coldness, in this particular worldview.

She was yanked from her reverie by a sudden curse from Luke, and a flurry of motion as he scrambled to place Rey on the table, running to his pot, which had begun to make an odd noise, and grabbing it with his prosthetic, yanking it onto another burner.

"Oops."

Rey seemed a bit shell-shocked about having been moved so quickly, clinging to her cookie, and looking up at Luke with reproach in her eyes.

"Uh…" Luke said, using a towel to get the lid off, and looking down at the contents uncertainly, "That's probably… fine. I'll just put some extra tomatoes in."

"The one thing you know how to make," Mara quoted, patting Rey's knee comfortingly.

"It'll be fine," Luke repeated, opening another can and dumping it in, "It's not like Leia can remember what it's supposed to taste like, year to year."

"She's certainly not a politician," Mara said, and Rey giggled, "Who values attention to detail."

Luke had turned pink, and Mara laughed again, breaking a piece off her cookie and tossing it at him.

"You're cute when you're embarrassed."

Immediately, the flush changed. It didn't deepen, exactly, nor did it disappear, but there was a _change_ to it.

"You think I'm cute?"

He turned back to her, and there was a definite look of glee under the calm exterior he was attempting. The blush had centred itself around his cheeks now, and his Force presence had gone from its usual shine to an absolute sparkle.

Mara pulled Rey off the table, and distracted herself with brushing cookie crumbs from her face. "Stop that before you blind someone," she muttered. She must have been blushing, too, she knew. Thinking that Luke was cute was a _private_ thing, something she saved for when she wanted to kill him, and had to remind herself not to. It was not something she was meant to say aloud, or even really believe, in any personal way.

It was a reminder of why other people liked him, _not_ a reason that she might.

He was still sparkling with happiness, though, and she found herself drawn to him. _Like a moth to a flame,_ she thought harshly. She was trying to distract herself, not wanting to accept it.

"I think you're cute, too," she heard him say, as if from a very long way away.

"I don't think you're cute," she said, but she knew it was too late. Rey had turned to look at her with an expression of dawning awe, and this was it, it was over now…

What was he doing, describing her as cute! She wasn't _cute_ , she was an assassin, and she'd come within a hair of _killing_ him, on more than one occasion!

"You like him!" Rey crowed, and Mara tightened her grip on her, in the hopes of keeping her from escaping. Too late. Rey had slipped loose, and was prancing around the kitchen, "He really _is_ gonna be my daddy!"

"I'm not your mom," Mara said, standing up, and making a grab for her student. "I'm your teacher, and Luke is just someone who doesn't want us dead or in prison."

"He likes _you!"_ Rey shrieked, dodging Mara, and scrambling to hide behind Luke's legs.

Mara was struggling to figure out a way to end this conversation, ideally without blood or tears, and coming up woefully short.

She'd decided that just walking out might shut them up, before Luke knelt down, grabbing Rey, and stilling her excited bouncing.

"Okay, Rey, let's calm down."

Rey's bouncing slowed a little bit, and she looked up at him with wide eyes, "But she likes you!"

"She said she doesn't," Luke said. Mara knew from his tone that he didn't really believe it, but she appreciated the effort.

"But…" Rey's bouncing was now only very occasional, "You like her…"

"Maybe right now, liking her means shutting up about liking her."

Rey had stopped bouncing, her shoulders slumped. "Oh."

"Dinner's almost ready, though!" Luke said, and his enthusiasm was a bit too much to be genuine, even from him. Rey took the bait, though, and stopped prodding, instead scrambling onto the counter to see.

"I want some!"

Luke gave it a couple more pokes with the spoon, before withdrawing a bowl, and serving Rey.

"Why don't you go see if there's something fun to watch on the holovision?" he asked, gently turning her, and pushing her back towards the sofa.

"I wanna play games!" Rey said excitedly, looking up at him as she accepted the bowl, "I saw yours, you've got all sorts!"

"Maybe after dinner, okay?" he asked, giving her another, slightly more commanding, nudge.

Without further complaint, Rey trotted off, and Mara shrank as Luke slowly turned back to her, remaining bowls still in hand.

"I…" he looked almost as uncomfortable as she was, "I'm sorry about that, I should've seen you weren't comfortable, and…" he seemed to lose the words, and turned back to the food, hurrying to serve her as well. "And I'm sorry."

She took a tiny step forward, and was saved from any attempt at physical contact by Luke passing her a bowl of food.

"It's alright," she mumbled, staring into the food in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to say you were cute."

"Did you mean it, though?" Luke asked, and Mara managed a little, uncomfortable smile at the hope in his voice.

"Yeah," she said, and beat a hasty retreat.


End file.
